


15 square feet

by RatKing_max



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Friends to Roommates to Lovers, M/M, Past Abuse, living in a van, small living spaces
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2019-11-20
Packaged: 2021-01-31 14:59:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21448093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RatKing_max/pseuds/RatKing_max
Summary: there’s already barely enough space for Karkat in his camper van, But there no way in hell hes taking Dave back to that hell hole of an apartment. He’ll just have to make do, no matter how shitty of a roommate he was.
Relationships: Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas
Comments: 9
Kudos: 67





	1. It’s just a flesh wound

Karkat and Dave were probably technically friends. They saw each other often enough, had a certain semi antagonistic rapport when they talked, even texted every once and awhile. But they never saw each other one on one without the larger friend group. Not a choice either of them really made, more just how things worked out. Dave was that charming asshole that showed up with Terezi some times, just above aquatints. So it was confusing when Dave called him at five am asking for a ride. 

Normally Karkat would have just told him to go fuck himself and gone back to bed… but there had been something to Dave’s voice. A tremor to it Karkats never heard on him before, under the layers of sarcasm and cool guy bravato he had been worried, Scared even. About what Karkat had no clue, but after he noticed it he knew he couldn’t just hang up on him.

It didn’t take him long to get ready and into his van seeing as that’s where he lives and sleeps, so only a couple of minutes later he was at the address Dave gave him. Pulling up to see Dave leaning against the dirty brick wall of the building, one arm wrapped firmly around his waist, the other scrolling through his phone. A huge stain was covering one half of his white baseball tee, blooming out from the spot under daves hand. Karkats brows knitted together suspiciously as he pulled up, honking once to get Dave’s attention. Dave jumped minutely before looking up at the van and jogging over, one arm still pressed into his side. 

“Jesus Christ dude, are you trying to wake the whole block?” Dave asked as he pushed open the door. Climbing into the car. 

“What the fucks happing here Dave? Care to tell me why you woke me up at FIVE IN THE FUCKI-“ his yell catches in his throat when he glances over at Dave. Gets a closer look at that stain on his shirt, a deep, distressing red that Karkat would recognize anywhere. The same red all over Dave’s hand where it clung to his side. “A-are you bleeding!?!” Karkat half asked half yelled, Dave gave a minor jolt that was probably a very under exaggerated wince.

“Let’s talk about it when we’re a bit further from here ok?” He said between gritted teeth. Karkat, truly thrown, quickly puts the car in gear and pulled away. Constantly throwing glances over to the definitely bleeding man in his passenger seat. He tried to ask about it a few times, but Dave just kept him driving, having him pull into the parking lot of an abandoned building and park there. “That'll work.” Dave shrugged casually, opening the passenger door and getting out. Karkat immediately scrambled to follow. 

“Dave what the fuck happened!? Dave! Dave talk to me, you fucking cock sucker! Do I need to call the cops!?” He yelled. Dave ignored him for the most part, focused on digging through his backpack instead. Until Karkat mentioned the cops, he looked up and him with a jolt.

“No! don’t call the cops man. I’m not a fucking nark.” Dave Said firmly.

“A-a nark!?? What the hell Dave! You're god damn bleeding out!” He yelled, flailing his arms wildly, Dave rolled his eyes. 

“You're overreacting,” Dave said simply, pulling a first aid kit out of his bag and setting it down on the concrete next to him. 

“What happened?” Karkat asked, a little quieter. Sitting down across from Dave. Watching as he carefully lifted his hand, then the side of his blood-soaked, slashed open shirt to look at the wound. 

“Nothing much.” Dave shrugged then winced. “I was being an asshole, Bro got tired of it.” He said simply, grabbing some alcohol wipes from his bag and starting to clean the cut.

“YOUR BROTHER DID THAT!??!” Karkat shouted. And Dave just looked at him over his sunglasses, rolling his eyes like Karkat was being unreasonable. 

“I was being an asshole. It’s nothing.” Dave said. And Karkat spluttered.

“It’s a stab wound!!” He said exasperated.

“its Slash wound. Katanas are slashing weapons.” Dave said, examining the wound now that it was clean enough to see. “It’s not even all that deep.” 

“I’m taking you to the hospital,” Karkat said, not asking, telling.

“No your not.” Dave said, just as firm.

“Your brother attacked you with a sword, We can’t just do nothing about this!” Karkat shouted, pulling his phone out of his pocket. 

“I am doing something, I’m patching it up,” Dave stated. Then fixed Karkat with a hard look, more intense then he thought the normally sarcastic, blank-faced man was capable of. “If you call anyone, I’ll never forgive you.” His voice was cold, a threat twinged with a bit of pleading at the end. 

“I… fuck man… fine. How can I help?” Karkat asked sliding his phone back into his pocket again. Dave let out a relieved sigh that turned into a hiss of pain as he pressed the alcohol pad to the oozing cut again. 

“water would be nice if you got it.” He muttered, and Karkat nodded. Opening the back door of his van, climbing over the mattress laying across the bed of the truck, over to the cooler that held all of the food he owned. Moving aside cold cuts and carefully wrapped leftovers to pull out a water bottle. Returning to Dave as he was finishing wrapping bandages around the wound. “Thanks.” He muttered, taking the bottle from Karkats hand. Popping it open and downing half of it before sighing. Rubbing gently at the bandage at his hip. 

“This is really fucked up,” Karkat said simply, and then Dave surprised him by laughing. Falling back onto the pavement.  
“I’ve had worse.” He said simply, glancing over at Karkat. “Sorry I called you. Normally I’d just lock myself in my room and clean it up myself. But that’s where he fucking ambushed me. My fault for not locking the door before I went to sleep.” 

“You were asleep!? I thought you said you were being an asshole?” Karkat said. 

“I’m sure I was at some point. Bro’s all about delayed punishments.” Dave said as if this was all ok and normal. Anger rose hot in Karkats chest, but for all he was trying to stay neutral, he could see how fucking miserable Dave was. He kept his hissy fit in for now. 

“Come on,” Karkat said simply. Standing and offering a hand to Dave. 

“You don’t gotta take me anywhere man. I just needed to get away from the apartment.” Dave said, but when Karkat glared at him he stood, not taking the hand to help him up.

“Shut the fuck up. Get in the van, I’m starving.” He huffed.

“Yeah sure. Whatever man.” Dave shrugged. Pulling himself into the passenger seat again. Then sucked in a harsh his of breath, putting weight on the cut. Karkat groaned, leaning over and digging through his glove box.

“There ya go dip shit,” Karkat said, basically throwing a bottle of pain relievers at Dave, who caught them out of the air before they could hit his face. They were the high dose. Top shelf shit. Dave smiles a little despite himself. Popping open the bottle and dumping slightly too many into his hand, taking them with what was left of the water bottle. 

“Thanks.” He said quietly. Karkat just let out an annoyed grunt in response and pulled out of the parking lot.


	2. Sleep cycle

An hour later they were parked again, a mostly eaten bag of fast food between them. Conversation coming easy for them. Dave was having a fantastic time riling Karkat up, delighted to see his comically short temper wasn't just something he put on around the larger friend group. But even for how fun it was, with food in his stomach and the pain relievers leaving him with only a dull ache in his hip, exhaustion was starting to hit him. He'd only gotten an hour or so of sleep before Bro had launched his attack, and just body was starting to tell him to go back to be bed. 

”for as fun as this us stubby, I need to sleep.” Dave said, stretching, Karkat glared at him.

“I’m not taking you back to that apartment,” Karkat scoffed. 

“Yeah fine whatever. Just find me a park or something, not the first time I’ve slept on a bench.” Dave shrugged. 

“Fuck you, I’m not doing that either.” Karkats voice was stubborn, clear he wasn’t going to let up on this. Dave rolled his eyes.

“Jesus Christ dude, I get your trying to like protect me or some shit. But I need to sleep.” Dave rolled his eyes. Karkat looked at him like he’s an idiot. 

“There’s a mattress in the back fuckwit,” Karkat said, gesturing behind him. Sure enough, there was, blankets and pillows splayed messily across It, clearly recently slept in. Dave paused a second before unbuckling his seat belt and climbing back, sitting down on the mattress. It wasn’t the most comfortable thing on the planet, clearly pretty old and cheap, but so was the one he had at home, he wasn’t complaining. 

“What’s this doing back here?” Dave asked. And Karkat stiffened, looking away.

“Because I fucking sleep here dumb ass,” Karkat said, despite the change in posture, his voice was just as condescending and annoyed as ever. Dave honestly felt like he kind of deserved the tone though because looking around it was pretty fucking obvious that this van was being lived in. 

“Cool.” Was all Dave said, and Karkat relaxed a bit. “So I can just like… crash back here?” Dave asked, glancing around. 

“Yeah go for it. I’ve got work anyway. “ Karkat shrugged.

an uncomfortable silence descended over them, Karkat almost never had anyone else in his space, and Dave rarely had anyone trying to help him. Neither of them knew how to handle what was happening, so they just kept their mouths shut. It stayed at that way until Karkats pulled up behind the seven eleven he worked at. 

“I’ll be back.” He muttered. Leaning over to his glove box and pulling his folded work shirt out. “You can stick around if you want.” He said. Then in an amazing show of mercy, left before Dave had to think of a response. 

Dave sat there for a second, thinking about just slipping out and leaving. He was pretty far from the apartment but he hadn’t been planning on going back tell tomorrow at least, needed to give Bro time to cool down. It was fairly warm out, he could find somewhere tucked away to catch a few hours of rest then walk back. Save himself the embarrassment. Really he was starting to think it’d probably been a mistake to call anyone. He’d only called Karkat because he’d known he had a car and was in the area, this was more than he’d been expecting. Maybe it would be a little awkward next time he saw him, but Karkat wouldn’t call anyone on Bro even if he ran, he’s pretty sure of that. It would be the best way to save face.

Dave thought all this as he laid down on the mattress, pulling the coal gray blanket over himself. Exhaustion quickly taking him once his head was on the pillow. 

He woke up to the sound of the car door opening, his plans to leave before Karkat got back immediately dashed. He can't say he feels to beat up about it if he's honest. Karkat glanced over at him, jumping a bit like he’d forgotten Dave was even there before calming. Giving him the little tight-lipped sneer that was Karkat's version of a smile. Before he noticed something and his nose wrinkled. 

“Did you sleep in your shades?” He asked, sounding utterly annoyed.

“Always gotta be prepared.” Dave responded Karkat rolled his eyes. Getting into the driver's seat and stretching.

Dave doesn't think he’d ever seen Karkat in short sleeves before, Or really anything that wasn’t bulky ass sweaters. He was honestly thinner then the sweaters let on, almost to an unhealthy point., but like his face, some baby fat still clung. The stiff fabric of the uniform hanging off his petet soft form. It was an unflattering cut but the blue contrasted nicely against smooth caramel brown skin. Dave didn't realize he was staring until Karkat froze under his gaze. Eyes looking briefly panicked before he sneered.

“What the fuck are you looking at?” He hissed, quickly grabbing and yanking on the black sweater he’d been wearing earlier. Dave blinked, shaking his head.

“Damn man calm down, I was just spacing out.” Dave lied, now looking anywhere but at Karkat.

“Well…fine… I guess.” Karkat grumbled. Getting back into the driver's seat, and beginning to drive off.

“Where we headed?” Dave asked after a moment of strained silence. 

“Library. I need to steal some WiFi.” Karkat responded, and Dave nodded. Watching as Karkat went around the library, going down an alleyway between buildings then parking in a small gravel driveway behind and across the alley from the library itself. Dave thinks there parked behind a pizza place but he’s not sure. “No one should notice us here for a bit, probably will be able to park here till morning,” Karkat explained, leaning the car seat back and pulling out his phone. 

“Fuck yeah” Dave muttered. This was something he was used to. Bro had WiFi of course, but he’d never once told Dave the password. So long hours hanging out in, or loitering around the library was pretty common for him.

They sat like that for a long time. A silence fell between them, only broken by Dave showing Karkat a meme or Karkats complaint about whatever Internet argument he was in. Until night came, they eat a dinner of slightly soggy turkey sandwiches and switched places. Dave lounging in the front when Karkat got onto the bed and slept. Dave sleeping the next morning when Karkat went to work. 

Two days later, when Dave was starting to get annoyed by his new nocturnal sleeping habits. It wasn’t a question of whether or not Dave was going back to his apartment, it was who was going to sleep above or below the sheets when they shared the bed.


End file.
